Alice’s Adventures Under Ground

6C Lewis Carroll. Being a Facsimile of the Original Ms. Book Afterwards Developed into “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Illustrated by Lewis Carroll. London: Macmillan and Co., 1886. First Edition. Notes Alice's Adventures Under Ground, published by Macmillan in 1886, holds a unique place in literary history as a meticulous, full-color facsimile edition of the original handwritten and self-illustrated manuscript book that Lewis Carroll gave to Alice Liddell as a Christmas gift in 1864. This intimate 90-page draft represents the raw embryonic form of what would eventually be expanded, reshaped, and published globally as the timeless masterpiece Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The text originally sprang to life during a historic rowing boat trip up the River Thames on July 4, 1862, where Carroll—the pen name of Oxford mathematician and logician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898)—improvised the whimsical story to entertain ten-year-old Alice and her sisters during a sunny afternoon excursion. This rare 1886 facsimile printing allows collectors and literary historians to view Carroll's actual cursive script and his own charming, somewhat crude hand-drawn illustrations, documenting the exact, private genesis of modern nonsense literature right before it was handed over to a professional artist for mainstream publication. The publication of this facsimile highlights Carroll's multi-faceted career as an Oxford academic whose private artistic impulses directly shaped the visual heritage of his fictional world. As Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, he maintained a formal, rigorous career lecturing in mathematics and logic at Christ Church, yet he harbored a profound passion for the arts, establishing himself as one of the premier amateur portrait photographers of the Victorian era. When he hand-inked the 37 illustrations for this original manuscript book, Carroll was forced to navigate his lack of formal studio drawing lessons, resulting in an unpolished, highly distinct artistic touch defined by surreal proportions, expressive lines, and a deep sense of childlike intimacy. Because Carroll later traded his own artwork in favor of John Tenniel's for the 1865 trade edition, this 1886 printing represents the only time Carroll allowed his personal, unfiltered drawings to be distributed to the general public, making it an important, rare, and deeply personal piece in the Alice in Wonderland collection. Description Red canvas hardcover with gilt lettering to upper cover and spine. Gilt edges. Gilt illustration to lower board. Bookplate pastedown to interior board of Drelincourt Matthews Martin. Some separation beginning along spine between pages 64 and 65. Fully intact. Very good condition.